by Tina Grazier
There are signs that things are changing in the Middle East. One hesitates to call it cooperation. Perhaps we can settle on self interest and survival. This story out of the Australian, Egypt puts Gaza tunnels out of commission, by Martin Chulov signals a growing desire to be done with terrorist activity:
FOR almost 36 hours from last Monday, eight Palestinian soldiers dug frantically through the soil of Gaza’s southernmost border for a team of smugglers trapped underground. When they reached the three lifeless bodies at sunset the following day, the soldiers noticed strange discolouration around their lips. They had not suffocated but been gassed. Amid repeated complaints from Israel about the tunnels, which sneak under the border to emerge in fields or homes on the Egyptian side, the Egyptian army has resorted to a deadly deterrence. Any tunnel openings they find will be gassed.
Strong measures but, one things for sure, if the countries in the Middle East want Americans to go home, cleaning house will go a long way toward getting it done. One leader chose early on to do just that. An MSNBC story tells of a new, more open direction in Libya:
Col. Moammar Gadhafi still warns Libyans that the United States aims to colonize them and plunder their oil. But now he is moving to open the country’s decrepit, closed economy to world markets, and has hired American consultants led by a Harvard business guru to guide the way. *** Gadhafi’s change of heart on the economy comes after dramatic changes in Libya’s foreign policy in the past few years. He renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and promised to pay compensation to 1988 Pan Am bombing victims, and won a lifting of economic sanctions. *** Oil has made Libya the richest country in North Africa, with a gross domestic product of nearly $75 billion. Despite that, hospitals, schools and roads are in poor condition. Unemployment is estimated as high as 40 percent and 1 million of the 5.6 million people live in poverty. Of those with jobs, 97 percent work for the government. *** A top goal of the program is to encourage Libyans to become entrepreneurs, opening their own businesses or linking up with foreign investment.
These two stories reflect changes in attitude and posturing. The surge may indeed be working and not just in Iraq. This is an important moment for the people in the Middle East who wish to direct their own lives and live in peace. But there are other indications of change, indications on the home front that signal we mean business(despite certain people in Congress). Consider the following ripped from the headlines today:
Dems abandon war authority provision by David Espo and Mathew Lee, Associated Press Writers:
Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush’s authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war. ***The Iran-related proposal stemmed from a desire to make sure Bush did not launch an attack without going to Congress for approval, but drew opposition from numerous members of the rank and file in a series of closed-door sessions last week.
Boeing-Missile Defense Works Better Than Expected by Andrea Shalal-Esa:
“We’re ready to defend the nation,” Scott Fancher, vice president and program director of the system, said of the ground-based midcourse (GMD) missile defense system Boeing is developing for the Pentagon. *** The system was built to intercept and destroy enemy long-range ballistic missiles during the midcourse phase of their flight. It went on alert before the North Korean missile tests for “much longer than it had ever been before,” Fancher said, although he declined to give an exact timespan. *** “The system was much more robust than we had hoped,” he said, referring to its software and memory banks.
God Bless the surge and the folks that are making it work.